Tough
by LILMISSS
Summary: AU. Born into the royal family of the great Asakura Kingdom, Yoh and Hao would've led very blessed lives. But when a war and a quest for great power ravages the land, what will you stand for? When the going gets tough, who gets going? Truth or ideals?


It had been a long-standing tradition to watch the Destiny Star cross the night sky every 500 years. People would watch in awe as the Patch kingdom welcomed the beginning of the revered Shaman Tournament. A grand festival – the Star Festival – would be held within the village, for all to celebrate the grandeur of the event. The king and queen would address the crowd, and they would announce their royal candidate to rise up to the challenge of winning the historic tournament.

But the Shaman Tournament would only take place 18 years later. For now, something more urgent was going on.

"I'm coming, your highness!" Amidamaru ran through the dark corridors of the grand castle, his silver hair sticking to his face, and his samurai sword clanking noisily against his uniform. The man was late, and it was such an important event, too…!

He burst into the bedroom; normally, this would've turned heads and caused screams, but his unceremonious entrance was not of concern, as the man ran over to Asakura Keiko's side. "I'm sorry, yo-"

"_SHUT UP AMIDAMARU, I'M __TRYING__ TO GIVE BIRTH HERE!"_ Keiko was visibly distressed and the king, who had been by the side watching, struggled not to chuckle.

"My dear, it's over," Mikihisa stated mildly. "Look, the twins are here."

He thanked the servant beside him as he cradled his new children in his arms. "Do you want to hold them?"

Keiko scoffed. "Of course. I went through hell for them!"

She stretched out her arms as her husband handed the twins to her. "They're boys!" she squealed. "Aw, and how lovely they look-"

She paused when one of the twins squirmed a little in her arms. Keiko suddenly noticed a small, perfectly 5-pointed star on his neck, but she only caught a glimpse of it as the boy squirmed and held his little hand forward to summon a small flame.

"A flame!" Mikihisa was taken aback. As the servants shifted backwards in fear, and as Amidamaru tried in vain to grab at the child, the king cried out in glee, "Why, one of our twins controls fire!"

In response, the baby shrieked, as the fireball in his palm cackled. Beside him, his brother began to stir. "Oh, come here, dear," Mikihisa cooed, as he lifted the calmer child. He watched as Amidamaru held the twin away from everyone, yelping as the newborn's fireball became more erratic in its movements.

"The child who controls fire…is he the older twin?" Mikihisa turned to the servant, who nodded in response.

His wife beamed. "We already have a great Shaman King contender in our midst," she whispered, and then the queen gave a long yawn. "Well, it's 9PM now; time to get some sleep, boys!"

Mikihisa frowned, clearly aware that she was referring to him as well. "You may leave now, my dear servants. But tomorrow, we celebrate!" he cheered, and slowly he handed the younger twin to his wife.

Keiko reached out for the younger twin, kissing his forehead. "May I have my boy back, Amidamaru?" she asked, as she moved into a more comfortable position on her bed.

"Yes ma'am!" the samurai shouted, and as he gave one final yelp from the burns he had sustained, he gently placed the child beside his mother. Immediately, he quieted down, as if he knew that it was his bedtime. "Goodnight."

The silver-haired man hurriedly left the room, for the new family to have their sleep together.

* * *

_6 years later_

* * *

"The Earth is obviously round; it'd only make sense that way!" a young boy with long locks of brown hair argued. "Yoh, why in the kingdom would the Earth be a…a _heart _shape?"

He looked in disdain at his younger brother's drawing of the Earth. "Well…I dunno!" Yoh chirped merrily. "Besides, Hao, wouldn't it be _great_ if the Earth were a heart shape?"

The two brothers were sitting in the large meeting room, with large armchairs and great oak tables lined with gold. There were a great deal of windows in the room, and the sunlight shone in, illuminating the place.

From the looks of the room, it was clear that the young boys had drawn up their own territories. By the bright side with the armchairs and a dozen pillows were large, happy pictures of animals and other strange things. Asakura Yoh, the younger of boys, had his drawings strewn across the floor, and despite the clutter of papers around, he made no move to clean it up.

Asakura Hao, the older brother, had his drawings (few) and written notes (a lot) neatly stacked in a pile on the king's desk, which was on his side. There were stacks of ancient encyclopedias and yellowed pages at the side, and Hao was lying on his stomach, flipping through his latest find from the king's library (which was never fully explored; King Mikihisa would rather babysit his sons than to read, and he hated babysitting), and gleefully absorbing every word and every concept the large book could offer.

"I guess it'd be great for you, and if I can look at the valley, I guess it'd be great, too…" Hao trailed off, as he lost interest in the Earth's shape and continued reading his encyclopedia.

Yoh beamed. "Well, I'm glad you see my way!" he declared. "Round is so boring!"

"But necessary."

"But _BO-RING_!" Yoh retorted, and when Hao didn't respond, he sat in his armchair, with a triumphant smile on his face.

As Yoh picked up a new piece of paper from the desk, Amidamaru flung open the doors, and shrieked. "T-T-Those are King Mikihisa's papers!" he screamed, pointing at the heart-shaped Earth drawing. "They're the ones with the royal crest of the kingdom!"

"…oh," Hao replied, uninterested as he continued scribbling notes.

"I coloured it in for Daddy!" Yoh responded. He crawled through his pit of papers and held it out. "See? I think it's much better now."

Amidamaru gulped. "Weren't you two supposed to be _outside_, _not _messing up your father's meeting room?"

Hao closed his encyclopedia and rolled on his back. "We got bored, Amidamaru-san. We're six, for crying out loud!"

"And we want to do a lot of things!" Yoh added on.

The samurai groaned, and as he slowly began his herculean task of cleaning up the place, the king strode in, along with his military leaders. "Now I expect you all to- _WAAAURGH_!" He stared at the room, and Amidamaru looked much more scared than Yoh, waving at his dad, and Hao, beginning to pack his things. "What have you _done_ to the royal meeting room?"

Amidamaru yelped. "I'm sorry, your highness! They were just playin-"

"Hi, Daddy!" the two boys chorused. Amidamaru turned to the two children, who had miraculously packed all their things (how Hao managed to carry a stack of books taller than himself, was beyond the samurai) in the few seconds he had his back turned to them. With a few greetings they were running off to the corridor.

"I…never mind." Amidamaru chuckled. Grunting, he set the place back in order and sat down next to the king. The other military leaders took their places solemnly, and suddenly, the once cheery, childish atmosphere was gone, and in its place was a cold stillness that made Amidamaru shiver.

"The Tao kingdom has captured the Ainu tribe land," King Mikihisa stated, as he picked up the first piece of paper from his stack. On seeing Hao's messy scrawls, he sighed and quickly found a clean piece of paper. Reminding himself to lock the meeting room, he continued, "and we'll be expecting the remains of the tribe to arrive in our kingdom soon enough. I'll be personally hosting as many people as I can in my palace, but even these great walls can't hold in everyone."

The king unfurled the great map of the land, and set it down with the paperweights (made by Hao and designed by Yoh) in his drawer. Pointing to the Tao kingdom in the east, he continued. "The Ainu tribe has been living near the border of Kyoyama's land for a very long time. To be forced out of their homeland all of a sudden…it's a tragedy."

Everyone around the room nodded in agreement, with a few muttering here and there forlornly. "Kyoyama…does that mean that they may be planning to-"

"That is what I believe, my dear Amidamaru," the king sighed heavily, "because from the looks of it, they're planning to take over the entire region. In fact, I just received the messenger of the Diethel kingdom. You may have seen the odd little man in the green coat with my wife."

"Oh, so that's the little hulk wannabe I saw! AHAHAHA! Get it? Cause like, the Hulk is green! AHAHAHA! " A dark-skinned man with large lips laughed.

No one laughed. Mikihisa tried to chuckle to no avail.

"_McDonell_…" the king sighed.

"_Chocolove_…" a few others echoed, smacking their foreheads.

"…I'm just trying to ease the tension…!" he retorted.

"…McDonell, it's great that as overall head of my military, you…try to galvanize your troops. But really? At this time?" Mikihisa explained, his face twisted as though it wasn't sure whether to smile or frown.

"Okay," he sunk into his chair, defeated. His military commander beside him patted his shoulder, trying to console the man over his sense of humour.

"Anyway…now, where was I- ah! The messenger of Diethel! Yes. Uh, King Diethel sends his regards…and he worries for both kingdoms after the Ainu tribe fell. Kyoyama is next up on the Tao's agenda, and Diethel and I both fear that we will be next." Mikihisa nodded, and he raised his arm. Making a quick swishing movement, the commanders watched in awe as a box of pins levitated towards him.

"Your Highness, you wield levitation powers!" Chocolove exclaimed in awe. "I didn't know that."

"Yes, well, it's quite a common gift to have around these parts." Mikihisa scratched his head sheepishly.

For a very long time, the world's inhabitants had been blessed with gifts – in born powers that varied in strength and usefulness. Gifts could range from the gift of death – being able to grant death, to the gift of laughter, to even the gift of food. The gifts varied in strength – for example, a weak gift of death would mean that the wielder could only grant death to small animals and small plants, while a strong one could mean death to as many as ten humans.

No one really knew how gifts came to be, and no one questioned it. It was a topic so scarcely studied that one wouldn't really know what gift they had until they actually unleashed their gifts by accident.

Which was why gift accidents, and even gift-related deaths, were common.

"Levitation, eh…?" Chocolove nodded in appreciation. "Useful if you're lazy!"

"Or if you want a large boulder to drop on someone's head," Mikihisa remarked, smiling at Chocolove, who immediately sunk back into his seat again. A few around the table grinned.

"Anyway, for now we have to make sure the Ainu tribesmen reach our kingdom safely, and to provide housing for them. We must make sure they are all accounted for. And we must also begin talks with Diethel and perhaps even Kyoyama to discuss our course of action. It'll take a month for the Taos to reach Kyoyama, and a few months after that to reach Diethel or our kingdom." Mikihisa waved his hand again, and a few pins shuffled out of the box. They pinned themselves to the kingdoms involved – Diethel, Kyoyama, Asakura and the Ainu tribeland.

Everyone leaned forward, examining the map. "Ah, Kyoyama is the most vulnerable right now. It's just a matter of distance they have to travel."

"Yep. Hooray to our mountain range, eh?" Chocolove chirped in.

"It's a wonderful defense barrier, I must say. The Ainu tribesmen know their way around the mountain, and they're more used to cold than the Taos, so it's only a matter of a few weeks before they arrive." Mikihisa nodded thoughtfully.

"We can start looking for places to take them in, for now, and prepare a trip to Kyoyama first." Amidamaru said aloud, looking at the map with a satisfied nod at himself. "When will the trip be, your highness?"

King Mikihisa's head drooped. "At the end of this week at sundown. And Amidamaru, you will be going with our…_hulk wannabe_ to Kyoyama. They're not a friendly bunch, and King Diethel felt that it was best if we sent two of our best representatives there, for safety."

"B-Best representative?" Amidamaru echoed, and then, all of a sudden, the man sniffled emotionally. "I-I will do my best, my king!"

King Mikihisa nodded once, smiling at him. "I know you will. Our meeting is now over."

* * *

**omg I've been writing a lot of Shaman King fics lately but this is my very first serious fanfic without Hao trolling the shit out of everyone. I know the Shaman King universe is pretty good to begin with but I decided to try out another universe because I have this image in my head (the near ending) and I need to write a fanfic to get it out of my head. YAY!**


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